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Review

Spoiler Alert:

The synopsis of Brooklyn is relatively simple. A young woman works in the town sundry, general good store.  She seems to be capable and efficient, whereas her employer is insulting to her customers. Later at dinner it is revealed to her mother and sister (though it seems that her sister already knows) that she is to be traveling to America for work. She indicates that her housing is secure as well, and that all of this has been secured by a Priest. Her mother mentions something of her return, yet they all feel that this might not be a possibility. The young girl is very naïve on the ship. Eating and getting food poisoning, only to be later guided by another more experienced passenger. She comes to live in a boarding house with other women, faces homesickness, takes classes, and works. As spring comes she finds adjustment and eventually love. She even marries. Due to a tragedy she has to return to Ireland, and eventually begins to have a double life, and new love. One day when someone says that they know the truth, she reveals to her mother that she must return. And return she does, to her husband.

Over all Brooklyn is great! It is a very honest whole-rest-paced portrayal of a young woman as she navigates the journey to a new country and her first months there. It is very honest when it shows Eilis’ food poisoning on the boat, her initial maladjustment at her job at a shop, her somewhat dowdy attire in her initial arrival in Brooklyn, and her periods of homesickness, nostalgia, and tears.  In the process, as I said in the preview, this film is a visual delight which uses great lighting, costumes and good facial acting to light up the screen, and at times dull dreary Brooklyn.

Pastel picture perfect image

As the story progresses we can see more smiles rather than downcast eyes on Eilis’ facial palette. Her grip on the country is also experienced in the certainty in her tone. But the biggest arena where you see that she has fully blossomed in her new country is evident by the different pastel hues of her costumes. I love the yellow cinched at the waist full skirted chiffon dress she wears as she drops off a letter in the mail box. I love the periwinkle top she wears as the other young ladies teach her to eat pasta.  She is simply a vision.

The problem with this film

I feel like people are going to invent a way to throw tomatoes at me through the internet for even having this subheading.  After all, this movie was named one of the best of the year, nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, and some have compared it to a beautiful Victorian Novel. It is a beautiful movie. It is heartfelt and honest, and I go to expound on this further. But I just have to say that at times I found that this movie dragged on and on. I am no adrenaline junkie when it comes to movies. However, it just seemed that this movie from her arriving to New York, to her troubled days at work, to crying upon receiving a letter, to just living… seemed to really drag on. Some might say that this is a throwback to neorealism- which showed scenes that nobody really wanted to see.  I like the emotional honesty and honest portrayal of what it is like for someone to adjust in a new country. But, perhaps 3 minutes somewhere along the way could have been shortened.

In addition, I thought that the end had such an anti-climactic ending. Yes, it is heartwarming to see her and her husband embrace and kiss when they rejoin. It is lovely, how the camera freezes on that moment. But, to portray so much of her courting another man , settling in at her sister’s former job, going on and on about her  new life in Ireland, and then before you know it she is in the arms of her husband—it just seemed a bit sudden! Her reunion with her husband should have been a bit lengthened. Or they could have cut down on her time in Ireland where she takes on her old life. That just went on and on…

A Feminist Story

A line that really resonated with me was when someone told Eilis, “Pretty plus you have qualifications, “Which I think is often a University of Michigan or any college educated woman’s dream. To us, this is the idea of having it all.  Many of us are not at the stage of children, a house, and a husband. But to be a confident, pretty woman, with an education is more of the current dream.

If I were to take it one step further I would say that this movie is a feminist one. This is a woman who makes a solo journey, gets a job, takes classes, decides how she feels about someone, decides what she is going to do with her body, etc. And all of this is done before feminism was a real word.

A mystery

The one thing that I was surprised to hear about was that her sister died, or more so how she died. Sometimes as she looked at letters from Eilis she looked a bit of envious. It mostly looked wistful, but with a tinge of envy or lost wondering. I wonder, especially as she could see her sister carve a life for herself, of what would happen with her life. Was she worried about always being the older sister forced to take care of her mother? Was she sad? Did that lead to her death?

We never found out why she died.  A small part of me thought that it was suicide. But after that idea was ruled out, I thought that perhaps her death had to do with more emotional reasons rather than physical.

Throwback to Neorealism

This film is somewhat reminiscent of I Girasoli (the sunflower) directed by Vittorio De Sica and the screenplay written by Cesare Zavattini. They are both behind the nonrealistic classic Bicycle Thief (Or in Italian Bicycle Thieves). In Girasoli, Mastro Mastrianni’s character Antonio loved Sophia Loren’s character Giovanna and even marries her- though he says that he is not the marrying type. Later during World War II he is almost half dead in the snow, when a Russian woman saves him. He eventually marries her. While in Italy Giovanna and her mother-in-law are consumed with worry. One day Giovanna goes to Russia only to find Antonio… married to another with a child.

In this movie, Antonio cannot put his dual identities together: His Italian past, with what Russia and the Russian woman who finds him. He cannot juggle the concept that this woman saved my life, and I owe her, and possibly Russia to a large extension but Italy is my home- I have people who love me there. Of course, we the outsider can say this so easily with an omniscient viewpoint.  We don’t know what the hell war does to people, and how it can not only kill people but put minds asunder.

Immigration and the life before and after coming to a new world- don’t always balance equally in the mind as well. In fact in an Abnormal Psychology textbook I read that schizophrenia happens a lot new immigrants. I cannot remember exactly why, but perhaps this has a lot to do with the balance to different identities and all that they encompass.

Another thing about both movies is that they show rather certain mundane scenes that more formalistic (or shall we say showy) films might not show.  In other words, both have scenes which seem to go on and on, and don’t always show the prettiest of things ( Eilis suffering food poisoning) and the camera panning on Antonio’s Russian home.. It’s mundane and at times not cute.

Honesty we can All Relate to

At times we might think that we have nothing in common with this movie because we are not an immigrant in the 1950s coming to Brooklyn. But we are all going through some sort of growth where we have to go through the not pretty stages of something. But in the end we blossom from it. This film does an excellent job of not being shy of exposing the drudge that can accompany new experiences and growth.

If you want to vicariously live through someone else’s experience, and yet relate it back to your experience of living, then this is the film for you.

Oh one more thing…

Another fun tidbit of this film is that it showcases… Jessica Pare!!!! This is the actress who portrayed Megan Draper in Mad Men. If you are like me and you go and stalk movies (and TV shows) that show former Mad Men cast members- then that just should be all the reason you need to go see this film!

But Mad Men cast spotting aside, truly: Go see this film.

Brooklyn Preview

Wonder what it would be like for a young woman to make a solo journey to America during the 1950s? What her hopes, her fears, and worries might be? Would you like to experience this vicariously?
If so then Brooklyn is the movie for you! It is a visual delight which uses great lighting, costumes and good facial acting to light up the screen, and at times dull dreary Brooklyn (although I would like to think that Brooklyn is at times is a character of the story and as Sarah Jessica Parker said about New York in regards to Sex in the City, it is another character)
This movie is a combination of love story meets coming of age story. At the same time, it shows how at times it can be hard for certain people have two identities/roles to juggle the two, and not let one overtake the other. In this case it is Eilis in a way, has a trickier time juggling her newfound American immigrant identity with that of her Irish soul.
But what this film is even more about is temptation in the context of out of sight out of mind. Let’s just say Eilis somewhat follows the path of Mastro Mastrianni from the movie Girasoli (Sunflower). He was an Italian WWII officer who was lying frozen/almost dead when the Allied troops went into Russia. When he recovers he marries the lovely Russian girl who saves his life. All the while forgetting the woman he is married to in Italy- played by the goddess Sofia Loren. But as I said earlier, Eilis somewhat follows his path- not completely. In order to see what Eilis does, well you just have to go see this movie, won’t you?
Also, if you need another reason to see this- think of her Saoirse Ronan. If you ever wondered what happened to that girl in Atonement- then this movie offers your answer. She blossoms into a bright beauty and brilliant actress. Unlike other child stars (cough…Lindsay Lohan)…
Enough of Lindsay Lohan—go see this movie!

The Aaron Carter concert tonight, February 24th, at the Blind Pig, was sold out and full of college students (mostly girls) who were excited relive childhood memories.

Before the concert, I was a little bit worried because of the negative reviews that I read on Ticketmaster before seeing the show myself.  Unfortunately, this concert left me with the exact same complaints as some of the reviews.  The concert started 40 minutes late.  I always assume that concerts at large venues such as the Palace will begin a little late because the sets there are usually so big but I didn’t anticipate this long of a delay for a concert on a small stage at the Bling Pig.  After the 40 minute wait, the Ann Arbor native, Daniel Henig, opened up for Aaron Carter.

Daniel played the electric guitar, beatboxed, and sang tonight.  He was talented in all three areas so the ladies loved it.  He started off playing guitar and covering popular songs, such as “Drunk in Love” by Beyonce.  He carried himself with confidence and interacted with the crowd very well.  He played some songs from his new album after he got the crowd involved.  I personally thought that his voice sounded the best when he was singing his own songs rather than covers of songs.  Though his songs were great, it was hard to attract the crowd when nobody knew the words.  After giving the crowd a taste of his own music, he switched back to singing covers.  He caught the audience’s attention when he started playing the tune to “Sorry” by Justin Bieber on his guitar.  The audience was engaged by singing a familiar melody again.

Support this upcoming, talented Ann Arbor native by subscribing to his YouTube videos or going to his FREE concert tomorrow at the Michigan Theatre.  He sang the song featured in his new video, “Hostage.”  This song had a catchy chorus so he was able to maintain a connection with the audience even though they didn’t know the song.

Overall, Daniel Heing’s performance was great and he was definitely a crowd pleaser but I think that I would have enjoyed the performance a little bit more if it had started closer to the “start time” of 9pm.  Check out his YouTube channel here.

Aaron Carter finally came on around 10:30.  I was shocked that it took an hour and a half for him to come on stage.  He strolled onto the stage but once the music started playing, he was full of energy and performed throughout the entire concert with the same amount of enthusiasm.  His first three to four songs were from his new album that he is trying to promote.  Succeeding that part of his performance, the mood completely changed.  He started rapping and singing along with a few of his favorite throwback tunes.  I think that he did too many of these since most of the people came to hear their favorite throwback songs of his own.  Finally after about five songs, he announced something similar to, “Let me take you back to why you guys fell in love with my music.”  This preview made it clear that his next song would be one of his most popular and well-known.  The crowd began to cheer and he started singing “I want candy.”  Oddly, he only played the song for 45 seconds, maximum.  I saw a few girls look around, confused about why he cut it off so soon.  Soon after he did other favorites such as “Aaron’s party,” he was already finished.

The concert was certainly an interesting experience. I think that the experience would’ve been much better if the concert had started on time and if Aaron Carter didn’t only play “I want candy” for 45 seconds.  I was confused as to why the Daniel Heing had more time on stage than Aaron Carter when it wasn’t even advertised that there would be an opener when I bought my tickets.

Nevertheless, if you are still interested in seeing Aaron Carter, there is a show on Friday night as well (Maybe show up around 9:30pm rather than 9:00). The information for that concert can be found here.

The Aaron Carter Concert is tonight, February 24th at 9pm.  The event is 18+ at the Blind Pig.

Aaron Carter began his career at the age of seven and over the succeeding five years he made a name for himself.  He stood out because of his energetic and charismatic style.  Some of his first gigs were opening for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.

I’m sure that most of us college students remember Aaron Carter singing the song “I want candy” from Lizzie McGuire on Disney Channel.  Come out and relive childhood memories at the Blind Pig tonight with me!

The tickets at $15 for general admission and $65 for meet and greet.  There is also a show on February 26th.  For more information about that show, click here.

 

The Big Short Review

Synopsis (Sorry it is super long, this is partially due to explaining more difficult finance terms):  The Big Short is the story of 5 men whose lives intertwine and they all somehow end up on team, “I predicted the Great Recession.”

The movie starts off with Ryan Gosling’s character trader Jared Vennett (who does a lot of the movie’s narrating) explaining what is mortgage backed security is and how it got its start in 1978. But it was not until the mid-2000s that they were widely being used. Then the film focuses to the hedge fund manager Michael Burry (played by Christian Bale) who gives us an introduction into his life.  He says that as a child he did not have the best social skills and that things essentially became worse for him when during a football game, his glass eye fell out.  And perhaps, it is that solitude which helped him be more contemplative and cerebral later in life. After all, like Cassandra predicted the Fall of Troy, he was able to predict the bust of mortgage backed securities. He noticed that for years they were in decline. When he went to bankers asking for credit default swaps on their mortgage backed assets (credit default swaps by the way are basically insurance against a bond, and if the bond does poorly then the owner of the credit default swap has to get paid) they all thought that he was crazy and readily agreed.

Varrett learns of Burry and is convinced that he is onto something. He wants to bet against the mortgage backed securities via credit default swaps as well. Somehow how accidentally calls the often prone- to- gaffe- Baum (hilariously played by Steve Carrell). He is a man who is loud and ooh so awkward. He enters a support group session really late,  interrupts a man who is talking about his personal tragedy, starts talking about his own issue, and leaves the session midway talking loudly on a call he took. It is soon learned through conversations with his wife (played very calmly and compassionately by Marisa Tomei) that his brother jumped off of a building.  This has made him more cautious about his actions, his career, and path in life. Perhaps because of this emotional impetus he and Varrett decide to team up to invest in credit default swaps. Along the way he Varrett discovers that another impending doom to the economy is CDO’s (packed up bad loans) that are given good credit ratings by agencies when they are really bad.  So when investors buy/invest in CDO’s they are actually investing in something that has a good reputation, but is really bad. Baum attends a forum in Vegas where he learns that there is a man out there who believes so much against the mortgage backed securities and CDO’s, and credit default swaps that bet against them, that he created a tool that deals with investing in packed credit default swaps (known as a synthetic cdo). Baum feels that the whole economy will crash eventually thanks to this…

Young investors Charlie Gellar and Jamie Shipley who have followed some of Varrett’s published writings, and wish to take part on Credit default swaps against mortgage backed securities. But they lack the financial assets to be allowed to have credit default swaps by the organization that regulates credit default swaps. So, they ask help from their former neighbor Ben Rickert (played by Brad Pitt) who helps them out by taking them to a forum in Vegas, where they are able to successfully get credit default swaps. It should be noted that Ben Rickert is rather jaded by the whole banking industry. Ben currently lives in Singapore, but when he did live in Colorado next to Charlie and Jamie he was so jaded with the banking industry and society as a whole that he lives off his own land/garden fertilized by his own.. Urine!

I won’t totally spoil the ending for you but what can be said about all these characters is that they make huge profits for themselves and a few others, but all are disillusioned when they see how when the economy tanked, so many people’s lives were destroyed. Two of them even try to go to newspaper writers to warn the public about the possible collapse. Sadly, this did not happen. Like Cassandra’s pleadings, and beggings as she foretold the doom of troy in the Iliad that go unbelieved, so is the similar fate of these men on Wall street. Tragic.

What the Big Short Does Well

The Big Short does well on giving a fast paced account of a group of key players who knew about the economic meltdown of 2008. The pace of Wall Street is often fast-paced and frenetic (have you ever seen images/video of Wall Street when watching the news?). But couple that with the zany, eccentric personalities who find out about the different facets of bad economic practices on-the-go, which are all really bad puzzle pieces of a bad reality, and you have a chaotic but exhilarating movie!

Narration as the Glue that Holds Emotions Together

The different narration qualities enhance the effect of the movie. Narrators offer an omniscient point of view that helps the audience understand what is going on; and in a movie filled with huge financial terms, quick cut editing, and short shots it helps at times to have a voice that sets the background context and the future. But in this movie, it is does more the narration does more than explain the past and future. . When we the audience see the shambles of the American economy, we are watching in disarray. Not only do we see shambles, but our emotions of shock, anger, and disbelief are scattered. The narrative quality of both Ryan Gosling’s and Christian Bale’s character help make our emotions more cohesive. They help give us words to resonate with, when we are numb at what we are seeing.

Screwball Documentary

The film also does a great job of using images from the real meltdown reality/history- which give a very veracious, semi- documentary like feel to this movie. You definitely feel that what you are seeing is tight to history and real lives. That coupled with the quirky characters portrayed give the movie a screwball documentary effect.  A screwmentary anyone? Ok, bad joke..

Masculinity and Emotional Introspection

I wonder what the film says about masculinity and emotional introspection. I say this because with the exception of Vernett’s smug stares and slightly-know it all manner of speaking (not to mention his nice thread), most of the leading male characters all have quirks to them. Burry is self-admittedly not the best at socializing with humans, the two young’un’s Charlie and Jamie is green and still talk about their mothers and garage bands , Ben Rickert eats veggies fertilized by his own pee, and Baum.. Well where does one start with him? He was uptight and crazily detail oriented as a kid ( as scene by a flashback with the Rabbi talking to his mom about certain Godly questions), and blurts more than he talks! Yet Baum cared so much about his brother, and worries about the American people. The young’un’s go to the newspapers to ward off others. I cannot help but wonder if they were portrayed  or really were more macho men.. If these same concerns and actions would take place.

Greek Tragedy and Ancient Worlds

The film definitely has Greek tragedy elements to it. Instead of one priestess Cassandra  who knew the truth while nobody listened, we had 5 men who took her place. Ryan Gosling’s and Christian Bale’s narrative qualities both served as sort of blind bards narrating the contexts before and after the stories depicted. It’s not a Greek tragedy in the most conventional sense, but instead of the Fall of Troy it was the fall of The American Middle Class. It’s funny, just before I watched this movie I saw Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story twice. In it the film starts with a reenacted documentary of Ancient Rome while a narrator discusses the flaws and problems with Ancient Rome that lead to its downfall. But as the narration continues the scenes go back and forth between ancient Rome and modern America at the time of and before the great recession- which many say is the beginning of the fall of the American Middle Class. Hmm.. all these ironies..

The one area the film could have been a bit better

I am sure that people are going to hate me for this, but the area of the film which could have been better is that of explaining the financial terms better. NOW, the film does attempt to this and humorously at that. It cuts during the story to bring up outside guest stars to explain different the complex murky terms of CDO’s, Credit Default Swaps, etc. Early on they have Margot Robbie in a tub drinking champagne explain one concept, then they have Anthony Bourdain, and then finally a professor and Selena Gomez.

But even I got confused as to what was what in the move- and I took an economic sociology class! I admit that before I wrote this review, I had some brushing up to do.

I admit that though I am slightly criticizing the movie, I don’t know of a better way for filmmakers to explain such complex financial systems. And this movie, did make a great effort. I would just give the film a B in terms of clarification efforts.

But as a whole this film is better than that and gets an A-. Go see it.

4.25 out of 5 stars

 

Saturday night ended up being a hoot of a time, sitting in a packed Arthur Miller Theatre on north campus. I have always admired this theatre for truly connecting the audience to the performers. The setting makes the entire experience incredibly intimate. You can see the actors spit and sweat and almost feel the heat from their bodies. THAT is how close you are to the action. And the play was incredibly well suited for this intimate setting.

Fortinbras started off at the end of Hamlet, in the classic Shakespearean language, as we watched Hamlet tell Horatio to make sure his story was told. Immediately after Hamlet takes his last breath, Fortinbras walks onto the stage, immediately breaking the tension and shifting the entire feeling of the play as he speaks in modern day English and starts cracking jokes about the situation. This was the perfect way to set the stage for the rest of the performance. From then on, I could not stop laughing.

The lead actor who played Fortinbras was perfect for this hilarious character. He did an excellent job of making fun of himself and demonstrably making the situation humorous. In fact, the entire cast had an incredible chemistry that resulted in a great performance of comedy. I was definitely surprised at how much I audibly laughed. Even though I do not remember every detail from the original play Hamlet, I was able to catch onto most of the jokes and follow the plot line of Fortinbras. The entire performance was in this way accessible to anyone who would like to attend.

I definitely would rank this performance in the top 5 I have seen of the musical theatre department. Their comedic timing was perfect, the actors were amazingly rehearsed, and story was easy to follow, making it a relaxed and entertaining show. I love that our students are so amazingly talented that they can do both extreme drama and lighthearted humor. I definitely hope to see another comedy of this level again in the future!